Happy Monday!

Alright.  It's been a month.  But seriously, I have a good reason.  A)  I work all day Mon-Fri.  B) When I'm home Jason is home and he is using the computer literally 24-7 for school.  C) We only have one computer (ok so we have two and I could totally figure out how to set up the wireless buuuuut....I won't)  D) I don't think that "I need to blog" is a good reason to kick Jason off, inhibiting his homework.  E) Blogging at work is totally not ok apparently.  :)

So there you have it. One day I will be able to blog again.  Probably this summer.  Until then I will squeeze them in when I get a chance.

Because it's late and I need to get to bed and it's been a while and yada yada I will do my go-to post.  BULLET POST!

1) In a week and a half Jason turns 30!  For real?  30?  I never thought that we would be hitting this milestone.  Ok, I figured it would come eventually.  It feels like yesterday though when being 30 meant that you pretty much had one foot in the grave.  Hmmm.  Amazing how my perspective has changed.  :)

2) Work is dandy.  We hired another person which has lessened my load considerably.  This is always a good thing. 

3) San Francisco is great.  I think that I'm adapting to the big city life.  I no longer feel that I need to leave this place every 3 months.  More like every 5 months.  :)  But really, I enjoy the S.F. life quite a bit.  It will be interesting to see where we go next but I can honestly say that I've loved/love living here.

4) It's $1.29 daffodil time at Trader Joe's.  I love $1.29 daffodils.  Such a happy little flower.

5) Lord willing we are planning a backpacking trip this May to the Trinity Alps.  It will be a 3 night/4 day trip.  It's been fun to slowly buy the things we need.  I've been running at the gym with the treadmill on an incline.  Holy cow I had no idea that setting actually simulated a hill.  It does and it's a work out.  :)  Anyways, it's a little more than a month away!  yay!

6) This last weekend I pulled all the weeds in our backyard and planted new flowers...making the garden veggie ready.  My seedlings are sprouted and I'm just waiting for them to get a bit bigger...then in the ground they go.  If all goes well we will have a lot of lettuce.  yay.  Also, snow peas, red and white onions, spinach and garlic. On that note, last year we planted artichokes and they are HUGE!  Huge artichokes, huge plant.  They are way taller than me!  Strangest thing ever.  Anyways, I'm letting this last round bloom.  I've never seen an artichoke blossom in real life.  They are lovely things.

7) Saturday, via a Groupon deal I ventured out and did some paintballing with some friends.  Jason wasn't able to go because he was at a TESOL conference.  Anyways, it was quite fun.  I got all shot up and have 7 or so lovely welts to prove it but it was for sure a good time.  I kinda want to go again.  :)

8) I'm pregnant.  SIKE!  hahahahaha.  Good one, no?  :)

9) I really want a dog.  Is this some how indirectly related to #8?  Hmmm.  :)  No really, I want one.  I'm torn between some sort of a lab and a German Shepherd.  We are in no position to get a dog but I still want one none the less.

10)  I'm tired and I am going to bed.  How's that for an update?  Funny because I thought I had things to say...buuut, turns out that I don't really.  Oh well.  'Tis life.  Have a great week!

I Like Crafts.

Aight.

So, I've been up to some crafty craft things lately...I'm sure that's utterly surprising to you.  :)

But guess what.  Remember those shutters I told you about?  Yeah.  Those.  Well, they are still sitting in my entry way...looking exactly as they did when I picked them up off the side of the road that wonderful day.  I know.  I just can't decide what to do with them/I'm trying to finish my other projects first.  They will be conquered...soon.

What I HAVE been doing though is...

some painting!  Painting of canvases that is.  Ok, so I look at the above picture and realize that my oh my it's a bit hard to tell what they are.  Anyways, the blue one are "weed type things" and the green one is a chandelier.  I also had a large canvas that I have been trying to decide what to do with.  I have a lot of color in my living room and I wanted to tie it all together.  I found THIS done with paint chips but realized that doing it would take an awkward trip to Home Depot where I try to subtly take far more paint chips than what's necessary for "painting a room".  I had a bunch of paint and so decided to use the idea but paint it instead!

So, for once in my life I tried to be totally and completely precise.  I used my cutting ruler to measure it and traced my pattern over and over...and over...and over.  Yeah, it took a while.  Then I started painting all sorts of random colors which took for FREAKING ever.  Oh my gosh.  Seriously, to do the 2'x2' canvas it took me about 6 hours to paint.  Yeah, I know.  Ridiculous.

So, I painted and painted some more and finally ended up with my finished product which turned out pretty cool. (the picture above is almost the finished product...my camera died and I can't find the charger...story of every bloggers life right? ) I love wow factor that takes 0 talent!  :)

Let's see, what else?
I cut my own hair today.  I FINALLY did it.  As in I've been trying to get the guts to do it for the last month.  I cut Jason's hair.  I've been doing it a while now.  I have been letting my hair grow out but still need those trims to keep from looking scraggly.  I HATE paying all the money to just get a trim though.  boo.  So, I found a website that gave a tutorial and it actually stinking worked.  Like it's straight...totally straight.  I was very impressed. 

AND...
I posted more bags in my little etsy shop.  (I woke up this morning to find that I sold one by the way!  woohoo...its a little light green and grey number that I didn't post here! :) )  yay.  Anyways, I really I like them.  I used to do this style back in the day.  It's my first bag I made and actually liked some 6 years ago.  I wore that thing until it was all faded and yucky.  So check it out yo. 

I just really like to sew.  It was half way encouraging that when I made this bag 6 years ago it was a struggle and took forever.  I was quite the novice sewer back then.  This time though it was much easier...oh good.  Apparently I've improved.  :)

And that's a few things that I've been up to as of late.

On top of that I've been learning a lot about food, our place in the food market, and ethical buying.  All overwhelming topics and yet important to understand.  But THAT my friends is for another post.

Have a great week!!!!

Yeah, I'm Here...

Though you wouldn't know it since I'm hecka lazy and haven't blogged a word.  "Hecka."  Yeah, I used it.  I'm so SF now.  Or maybe it's a northern Cali thing in general?  Not sure.  Though "hecka" is the good girl version of what they actually say here...HELLA!  Ack.  Potty mouth.  Watch out, lightning is going to strike me down.  :)  No really, EVERYTHING is "hella".  That's "hella cool," "I'm hella tired,"...etc.  It's funny.  They all know that they say it too because there are even t-shirts you can buy that say, "I hella heart SF".  Funny.  I almost want one...almost. 

Anyways, I'm here to tell you that I am alive.  I'm hella..I mean hecka sick though.  We ALL have managed to get sick at work.  My other co-workers have called in sick so I'll be at work today all by my lonesome feeling like poop...holding down the fort.  Oh well.

So, I shall blog this weekend hopefully with some projects that I've been working on and maybe the result of what ended up happening with my shutters.  I've also done some paintings (I know RIGHT?), and have been stocking up my wee lil' bag shop with some more...you guessed it....BAGS!  All those to come!

Welp, love to you all.  Peace.  :)

What would you do?

Last Sunday we went to church, parked our car in the parking garage, walked down and BOOM, what was there on the side of the road but 4 old crusty, fantastic shutters.  I sorta freaked out slightly begging Jason to let me take them back up to the truck to claim them as my own.  We were running late though and so decided to leave them there until we came back.  I figured it was a lost cause and that some one would snag them before church let out...but nope.  They were still there.

So, now I have them.  I remember thinking before when perusing craft ideas that I really wanted old shutters for cheap wall coverings.  Now that I have them though I can't seem to decide that to do with them.  Here are a few ideas.  What do you think?

Organize mail?

 source

Organize kitchen stuff? 

 source

Headboard?  I've been wanting to make my own headboard for a while now...

 source

Shelves?  These colors are awful but you get the idea...

 source 

A table?  Ok, super cool but I'd have to get creative with where to put it in our tiny place...

source

 Make it part of my collage space above the couch?  Like this idea a lot although my shutters are more the "typical" shutters.  Maybe I can combine with the idea below...hang framed photos on them?

 source

 

Like this...?

 source

Mmmm. So many ideas....Which to choose.  I have 4 so technically I have a couple of different options unless I do the headboard.  I also have 17 other projects to finish too.  I guess I should go put the first layer of varnish on my table eh?  Have a great weekend!

The Weekend

The weekend was marvelous...friends, crafts, baking.  How much better can it get?

Saturday kicked off with a morning cup 'o joe with my beautiful friend Autumn.  Yeah, the good friend who moved about 30 minutes from me but that I manage to only see 2-3 times a year.  Hey!  We're busy people alright.  Quality over quantity is what I always say.  :)  Anyways, after our morning dose of caffeine it was off to hit some thrift shops.  THIS is what I brought home...

You may be asking, "Why do you have a bunch of random plates and vases?"  Well, let me tell you.  I've had my eye on some very lovely cake plates as of late....yet the $40 price tag (and that's on the low end) makes them not quite so desirable.  I saw somewhere that someone stuck together plates and vases/candle holders and then spray painted them to create a cake plate.  The thing is...I want to be able to actively use these cake plates...and spray paint isn't exactly permanent.  So, Autumn and I put together our heads and created some lovely combos.  They are all mix and matched and yet I love them.  So cute.  So, here's what you do... 

Take your pile of thrift shop goodies and get yourself some heavy books, epoxy, and something to measure the center of the plate (I was very technical and precise and used string. :).)  Then some how figure out the middle of the plate.  Once you do, outline the stand that you will be gluing in pencil onto the plate (you can barely BARELY see my outline).  This will make it easier as epoxy is relatively fast drying.  Once you have your circle on your plate apply the epoxy to what will be your "stand" and stick that sucker on to the underside of the plate. 

Then bust out those old musty books you never read anymore because E-readers have taken over the world, set them on top of the stand...let sit overnight.

When all is done you have cute little cake stands such as these (they are two separate stands stacked on top of each other)...

Because you now have 4 (hey, I bake a lot of cakes alright!) new cake stands that you need to find a home for, get creative in storing them...

And of course...you could always bake a cake and try it out too.  :)

And those are my cake stands...totaling in at about $2/cake stand.  Oh I love me a good thrift shop.

I Only Post on Fridays...

Apparently this is all I can muster...a once a week post that happens to land on Fri. for whatever reason. Soooooo.  Happy Friday.

Jason is currently at a birthday BBQ thingy and I wasn't invited.  Shocking huh?  No, actually, even if I WAS invited I would have declined (it's some guy from school that I haven't ever met).  I do NOTHING Friday nights.  After a 40 hr work week it's the couch...or in this case, the computer for me.  Aaaah.  The weekend.  Oh yay.

So, last weekend Jason and I celebrated 3 years of wedded bliss.  We went to this place called Philz Coffee which is apparently the best drip coffee around (can't you tell by their sign, haha).  They make each cup individually and it was packed with people in there.  Pretty good I must say though.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Please ignore how incredibly and completely TIRED I look.  Thank you.  

After coffee Jason did some homework (yup, he's back in school.  He calls me his "homework widow".  Funny...and yet a pretty good description of what happens when he's in school.)  And people supposedly do this with KIDS?  How may I ask you?...

Anyways, we went to a fancy pants restaurant that was da bomb went off in my mouth GOOD.  Oh yes, and their panna cotta was to.die.for.  Seriously, if there's food in heaven and it's better than what we've got here Lord take me home now.  I.am.ready!  (Ok, not really.)  I had the Maple Leaf Duck.  Duck is SO under rated.  Oh my goodness.  I love me some duck.  mmmm mmm.

As I said, Jason had the panna cotta and we inhaled it faster than we could take a picture of it.  ooops.  I had the chocolate bread pudding that was so recommended and it was RICH.  But good.  yum.  The panna cotta was better though and I was jealous Jason ordered it and not me.  Punk.

Washed out "flash" picture.  :)

Did I mention that we dressed up and got all pretty for this date?  Yeah, we/I did.  I wouldn't describe Jason as pretty.  Handsome yes.  Pretty no.  Anyways, I wore a necklace and painted my nails red.  I almost never do either things.  I felt so feminine.  :)

So, folks.  That was our anniversary.  Lots of fun and I wouldn't trade these last 3 years for anything.  I'm rather fond of the guy.

On another note.  Every time I go out to eat in San Francisco I am so inspired.  Inspired by food. Is there any better inspiration?  I'm of the opinion that no, no there's not.  :)  Anyways, I have this big fat honkin' beautiful cookbook called The Silver Spoon.  The recipes are fantastic.  It's a Phaidon book so that gives you some idea of the quality (they are a seriously snobby publisher making their books seriously expensive).  Anyways, this book has been on my "must have" list for so long but at almost $50 it's been on the "not now" list for even longer.  Anyways, thanks to Border's poor financial decisions I scored this book for $15.  It has a slightly bent corner but really?  Who cares.

Well, I've been busy and have yet to cook a significant quantity of things from it.  I flip through it all the time and think, "OH!  Must cook that right.now."  Then I forget, move on, and there you have it.  I finally decided that such a thing must change and so I went through it and made a list, pulling some of the favorites that have been enticing me as of late.  I wrote it on a piece of paper with the page number for easy reference.  The list is now on my refrigerator and when I'm having the "I need to cook something new/interesting, I'm bored with cooking feeling" I no longer need to think..."Hmmm, what should I make?"  I'll just go to the 'frige and check it off as I make it.  Last weekend I made Italian Crepes with Vanilla Custard.  Yummy.

Alright, I'm done typing.  Time to get back to my tray of under cooked brownies that I put in the refrigerator and are now a solid but fudgey gooey mass of goodness.

Yeah, I know.  PIG.  But who wants to dirty an extra dish?

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!!

10...more? Fabulous Facts for a Friday

So apparently it's been since Friday since I've sat my little tuckus on this chair and posted.  Oh well.  So, here ya'll go.

1. Fact: I would say that for the most part we are "healthy" eaters.  I use this loosely because I'm not saying we don't eat sugar...we do.  We just try to eat most all things from scratch.  Basically, the least amount of processed food we can.  But lemme tell you...this last week, not so much.  I have consumed enough Cadbury Mini Eggs (yes, those delectable chocolate mini eggs with the crunchy candy coating...which I have you know are actually sort of hard to find)...anyways, I've consumed enough toooooo...  To fill something large.  Like a bathtub or something.  Anyways, chocolate has been winning me over as of late...oh, and chips too.  Mmmm.  Salt.  I love salt.

2. Fact: This weekend we are celebrating our 3 year anniversary! Woohoo!  Three years and we still like each other...usually.  :)  Anyways, I want to go to this french restaurant which has amazing yelp reviews but they have NO reservations left. ugh. booooo.  I think we will try to go early...at like 5:00pm or something and see if we can score a table.

3. Fact: We are hitting the REI used gear sale Sat. bright and early.  Yay!  If you aren't familiar with REI you can return darn near anything.  Like, it can be seriously used and dirty and gross and you can STILL return it.  Weird.  I know.  Anyways, REI takes all that used stuff and has REI Used Gear Sales.  You can go and buy it for substantially discounted prices.  Some of it's practically brand new.  The best part is that they put the reason on the tag for the return.  Like there was something that was so used and gross and it said, "Customer didn't like color".  Seriously? When did they figure this out?  2 years after the purchase?  haha.  Anyways, it's fun.  I'm looking for a backpacking backpack and some more aggressive climbing shoes maybe.  :)

4. I'm refinishing a table.  My first ever.  It's...er...a work in progress?  So, the backside of the table came out great.  Go figure.  The top though is having some issues.  I'm staining the top a dark stain and then painting the bottom of the table an off white/cream color.  Saw it in a mag and I likey liked it.  Anyways, it shall be my sewing table when I'm done. 

5. Fact: I'm getting a cold.  Don't need much elaboration on that but I'm hoping my nose postpones the whole "fill with snot thing so I can't smell/taste anything" until AFTER our exciting restaurant trip.  What torture it would be to go to a new restaurant and not be able to TASTE it.  Sounds like torture to me at least...  :)

6. Fact: I bought a Kleen Kanteen thingy a month or so a go with an REI gift card I got from my work.  I did this after using Jason's...he's had one for a couple of years now.  I was totally amazed at how different/better water tastes coming from stainless steel rather than plastic.  So, I bought one.  Mine though came with the sport top (they didn't have any screw top ones).  When I use the bottle it sings like a really annoying bird.  I thought it was just mine and then I realized that my other two friends have one and there's does the same.  Lame.  So, the moral of the story is...drink from stainless...skip the sports cap!  :)

7.  Fact: My nose is filling with snot as I type.  Literally.  So much for tasting my food this weekend.  :)

8. Fact: What is up with the weather? ---That is so not a fact statement.  Well, let's try this one.  Fact: Winter no longer exists.  At first I thought it was just California that was experiencing a fabulously mild winter...turns out it's most of the U.S.  Maybe it's a nice break from the torrential rain/snow that the U.S. received last year.  Whatever it is...I'm.a.fan.

9. Fact: I have to do self-evaluations at work this week.  Those are so awkward to do.  I mean you have to rate yourself.  It's like someone asking, "So, do you think you're awesome?"  ehhhhh.  No?  Yes?  Maybe, I don't know.  aaaaaah. It sort of stresses me out and I end up just staring blankly at the form for far longer than necessary.

10. Fact:  The day after Friday is Sat which means...THE WEEKEND!  Have a great one peeps!